syria and hezbollah know what happened. but, you know, from israel's perspective, they do not want to become, as i said, the issue. they are watching the demise of one of their -- of their nemesis in the region, one of them, syria, and they just prefer to stand back and let it happen. >> ifill: is there any risk for israel assad's fall should he fall? >> well, israeli officials think there is. and tre's beenn evoluon o thinking on this. initially there was concern that, you know, assad's the devil we know, who knows what's going to happen? they certainly are concerned about jihadi elements in the rebel forces. they're concerned about the transfer of potential chemical weaponses to hezbollah but they've come around to the view that, in fact, it would be very good for syria because it will take the key link out of this arc that goes from iran through syria to hezbollah. and i went in actually to see the minister of intelligence and aatomic energy last week and he said to me if the assad regime falls it will be bad for the ira